End of the Year School Video

Newscaster or politician? E can sure talk right off the top of his head. I guess he gets a lot of practice talking. G and M are not as fond of the camera. Happy end of school everybody! (yes I know you have been out for weeks in TN and VA) B

Favorite Things

Here are a few of my favorite things right now:
* G is constantly trying to spell things. Instead of saying YES and NO he spells them to me. M has picked up on this though his spelling is even worse than G.
*It has been raining off and on since last Thursday; we went 30 days with no precipitation before that point. Too early in the summer to be in drought mode. Let it rain--- at least until July 1 when 2 of 3 munchkins go to zoo camp.
* We saw the movie UP for Father's Day. Not as great as Monsters VS Aliens. The lost baby thing at the beginning bothered me and the dogs were a little vicious and the whole thing was a little dark. My favorite part was the squirrel part. The boys keep randomly yelling out 'squirrel' now. At the movie M was quite a sight. He has to sit at the front of the theater seat otherwise he gets folded up in it. So he sits at the edge of the seat with his little bag of popcorn and the 3D glasses on and when he gets thirsty he tilts his head my way and loudly whispers "Drink!" and takes a sip of root beer without taking his eyes off the screen. He was too funny.

One final thought: isn't it interesting how different kids can be? When E did camps at the Y in preschool and kindergarten in the summers he would beg not to go and come up with fake illnesses and cry the whole day before. He would get there and act sullen and sad as I left and then at the end of the morning finally realize I hadn't been mean or wrong and he was going to have fun. Oh yeah, the Y was one mile from our house. G headed to zoo camp for 2 afternoons last week and couldn't wait to get there and pestered me about what day and when we would leave and couldn't we go early and why wasn't it more days. And he bounced into camp with me saying "Don't I even get a hug goodbye?". And the zoo is far from home across the bridge. E is headed for zoo camp next week for one day and he has already started the bargaining and whining about it. Maybe G can help him get used to the idea of having fun and not worrying so much that it won't be fun.

love and hugs, B

Weekend at the Beach

We didn't mean to do a whole tour of the coast thing this weekend. We left the house thinking: spend the day at Westport playing on the beach (I would say 'playing in the water, but this is the Pacific Ocean and you don't play in it without proper protection; think wet suit with long underwear under it). We did pack for overnight just in case we were having a great time and wouldn't make it home or in case of messy children.

The weather didn't cooperate. When we hit Westport it looked like this.
So after 45 minutes of wandering the beach gathering sand dollars D and I made a plan. We would wander the coast hoping for clear weather further south and checking out other beach areas.

Next stop Long Beach:

Interesting display of whale bones and horseback riding on the beach but as you can tell from this pic:
The weather was still not great; the surf was so rough it was making a salty mist. We continued south.

Next stop, next stop Cape Disappointment lighthouse. E loves lighthouses. I thought I had seen this one online one time so we tried going to it. It turns out you all have probably seen it in a pic somewhere because it is one of the most photographed lighthouses in America. BEAUTIFUL!!!


Spectacular scenery! At this point we knew we would go on to Oregon.

I drove across the longest most horrible bridge ever across the Columbia river from Washington to Oregon. Just had to put that in because I lived through it.

We drove through Seaside Oregon but didn't even stop. Just not that interested in it.
On to Canon Beach, Oregon. A perfect stop. Cute beach town. Beautiful beach. World famous bird sanctuary. They had a sand castle contest Saturday so we saw all the remaining castles. This gnome needs a permanent home on my blog somewhere. He could be a little symbol to mark entries that tell about our travels.
Anyway, we walked the beach a little bit, looked at Haystack Rock bird sanctuary from a distance,had dinner in town and were out for the night. All three boys in one bed--- hope this trick works for a long time.

The next morning we got up, dressed (mostly) for the beach,

and hiked toward Haystack Rock.

Main goal was to see some birds: loons, seagulls, komorants, and puffins. I was totally psyched about the puffins. Boys--not so much. By the time we got there the little ones were tuckered out. Luckily, one look at the sea urchins and large orange and purple starfish and loons and puffins brought them out of it. It was low tide so we could walk right up near the rock.

So FUN!!!
Sorry, I am still having difficulty controlling my child-like enthusiasm. The kids played in the sand for a while using the old piles of sand from the castle contest as their own.

The ride home was long, but pretty with one road winding along the Columbia River valley. We are all hoping to go back to the beach sometime later in the summer and maybe even get some warmer weather.

love and hugs, B

Preschool Picnic

G's end of preschool picnic was last week (no we're not out yet---- next week). Location of the picnic was here.

With a view like this:

And the preschoolers did this:

A beautiful day, all the kids had a great time splashing and digging in the sand and looking for crabs and other sea creatures; and the parents had a wonderful time chatting and watching the kids.
love and hugs, B

Pirates of the Peninsula

This weekend was our town Maritime festival with the theme Pirates of the Peninsula. Saturday it drizzled a bit on the parade, but we went and braved it and had a fun time. The kids love grabbing whatever is thrown from the floats. The pirates were mostly the fun kind with little kids dressed up and all the pirates looking friendly............. Until the Seattle Seafair pirates showed up.

They were much more realistic. Not nearly so friendly and happy go lucky. One guy carrying a wooden head on a stick came up to the kid next to us complaining his last cabin boy hadn't worked out so well and asking if any of the kids wanted to run away. Other Seafair Pirates had big machetes with metal blades and were dragging them on the ground as they stalked along. I began to wonder if they were actually pirates. Their boat had a cannon on it that they would all cheer and fire it off. Great fun to see a real band of Pirates in the Harbor. Hopefully they won a prize and will come back next year.

Saturday we didn't hang around since the weather wasn't cooperating and the crowd was enormous. We went back on Sunday to walk the docks and see some of the boats (built mostly in Gig Harbor; they seem to come "home" for the festival and blessing of the fleet).

Amazing Grace is our town's tall ship.

We walked on for a tour of a tugboat built here in the harbor.
And E was very interested in the Dragon Boats. Aptly named for their visual appeal.

There is actually a club in Tacoma you can join to row in the Dragon boats on weekends.

A good time was had by all.

love ang hugs, B

Garden Box

First harvest: We put in the garden box this year and for the first round of veggies we used broccoli starts and grew lettuce, carrots, and chives from seed. The kids have enjoyed watching everything grow and so have we. We harvested broccoli and took out the plants this week.

We have eaten some lettuce and will finish it off over the next week. Carrots are not quite ready yet, but we are waiting anxiously; G has already taken a 'baby' carrot in to show his teacher. Next to go in is zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, and basil from seed. We tried starting bell pepper from seed, but I think our grow time here is too short to get it to harvest so I will get starts of bell pepper and maybe one other growing item. Our tomato plants are in a small trash can on the patio (starts since the grow cycle here is too short to get them to harvest before the cool weather sets in). The garden box has been really fun so far. Hoping summer harvest goes as well as the cool weather veggies.

love and hugsand eat your veggies (though I wouldn't ask anyone to go to the vegetarian extreme of G), B

Not So Long Ago.....

Not so long ago I had my first child in a baby bucket style car seat and said " When will he be out of this thing? It's too heavy."
Not so long ago I had my first baby in a big car seat and said " This thing takes up so much room in the car; how long until he gets out of this clunky car seat?"
Not so long ago I celebrated with my bigger boy when he moved into the booster car seat " Yippee, not so hard to take on trips. Look how you have grown!"
This weekend my biggest boy got to take his booster out of the van and sit without a car seat and I said "Where did my little baby boy go? Why did the last eight years speed by so quickly?" and I told him he looked so big sitting without his booster, but really I just wanted him back in that heavy old baby bucket and it was really hard to celebrate.
love and hugs and enjoy them while they are little because it does go too fast, B

Wild Animal Hunt

When I want to drive past the water I make it fun for the kids by calling it a wild animal hunt...usually we can see some kind of animals-even if they are not always wild. Here is G to tell about this morning's wild animal hunt:

First Mom screamed "wild Cows". Then we saw horses, we say they are wild even though they live at a horse farm. Next a deer-- a wild one that Mommy was almost going to run over that deer. Then we looked for wild sheep but they weren't out. I said "We are not going to see any animals" and then we saw seals. There were four (like I am four). We stopped to watch them. They were wiggling and jiggling. I liked the seals. Bye.

Thanks G for telling about our adventure. Next time we might get pictures if I remember the camera.
love an hugs and watch for animals, B

Shopping Adventure

It is a bit sad when shopping becomes an adventure. I am tired of Target. That is my only place to shop here (besides Costco). So Sunday we headed north to Poulsbo; cute town with a Walmart and we pass a Kohls on the way. OK--- it also happens to have a terrific bakery. We went down to the waterfront first and walked around. So cute, modeled ona Norwegian fishing village since that is where the first settlers here were from. Sons of Norway still have a large and active part in the town.

The kids love the Viking statue in the park. And climbing the big rocks they have all over the waterfront.

Sluys bakery was terrific as usual and we brought plenty of elephant ears home (thought the children don't like them which I totally do not understand).

We then headed to Walmart. What I wouldn't give for another store closer to home other than Target. E needed shorts for summer like crazy and our boys are boys so there is no use buying nice clothes for them to cover in grass stains. We ended up with four pairs of shorts, a polo shirt, 2 pairs of crocs, and 2 pairs of tennis shoes for under $100. Knock Walmart if you will but for clothes that hold up for boys and low price, you can't beat it. We have a store here called Fred Meyer that is similar to Walmart, but the prices are not even close and I still hae to drive 20 minutes to get there. I like the WalM in Poulsbo because it is new and clean and the view from the parking lot is spectacular.........

We have come a long way from the South Nashville WalM where you got shopping done as quickly as possible and never went after dark.

Summer seems to have come early. Temperatures in the 70s and low 80s and no rain. I miss the rain; especially since our water rates are in conservation mode which means triple the cost. The irony of being known as the rainiest place in the US is that all the rain hits from October through May and for four months of the year it doesn't rain at all. I did play in the yard a bit this weekend while the kids played with friends. D took this terrific shot of me.

Hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, lots of plants--- yes I do look happy.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

love and hugs, B